What can the Dolphins expect from Wallace and Hartline this upcoming season?

With the shift in Offensive Coordinator during this offseason to Bill Lazor, the Dolphins have much reasoning to be excited about larger potential results from Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline in the 2014 season. During last season, Lazor utilized big play potential from Eagles’ receivers DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper. In my opinion, this duo compares nicely to our Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline. Lazor made a boom-or-bust receiver out of Riley Cooper who didn’t really have the breakaway speed of Jackson but had the sure hands to come down with the deep ball on rather frequent occasion. I believe Lazor will do the same Hartline, and he already has a great foundation to start with because the chemistry between Tannehill and Hartline seems to be the strongest that Tannehill has with any of his receivers; stats last season reflected that with Hartline being the leading receiver and the only receiver to peak the 1,000 receiving yards mark for Miami with 1,016 receiving yards. I would love to see his TD numbers increase seeing as he only had 4 on the season, but I don’t foresee that number getting much higher because the new offense that Lazor is implementing will be much more dependent on tight end play and the run game in the red zone.

As for Wallace, I see bigger and better stats for the MVP-caliber receiver next season seeing as Lazor knows quite well how to complement smaller bodied receivers (i.e. DeSean Jackson) into a lethal offensive scheme. I expect to see the WR screen made a much more regularly implemented play in order to ease Tannehill into the bigger games that the team will desperately need his arm during, such as the huge home opener against New England to start the season. But I do also expect to see the deep ball connection become a much stronger threat throughout next season, which will drastically raise Wallace’s receiving yards numbers from the mediocre 930 yards he had last season. Despite much discrepancy among analysts, I believe Lazor will devote a large amount of the mid-late offseason (once the first team offense is basically set in stone post-draft and free agency) to assuring that when called upon in a one-on-one deep ball situation Tannehill and Wallace will connect.

Hartline and Wallace will both see better stats next season because the way that they complement each other will work masterfully into Lazor’s system, and I can’t wait to see the results that come from it on the scoreboard next season, especially in those big games that determine a playoff spot.

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